By Teddy Tauscher
The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
SALEM, N.H. — A man who was sought in connection with an assault on a child eluded police during a Tuesday night manhunt was in custody by Wednesday afternoon.
Police apprehended Daquhan Cromer in Lowell after he was found by Massachusetts State Police and U.S. Marshals Service deputies. Cromer was wanted in Massachusetts for aggravated assault on a child, for multiple felonies in New Hampshire and for leaving a facility meant to assist prisoners in the final days of their incarceration, according to Capt. Jason Smith.
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Cromer, then a 28-year-old minimum-security inmate of the Calumet House Transitional Housing Unit in Manchester, fled his unit on Dec. 1, 2025. He had been serving a sentence for simple assault.
As drones, canines and a helicopter swept the area Tuesday night, residents were warned to shelter in place. The order was lifted later that night after Cromer was believed to have left Salem.
Police said Cromer had assistance in Tuesday’s attempt to avoid capture.
“We knew there were people actively attempting to assist him,” Smith said.
Known to local police, Cromer was noted as capable of using violence to elude a pursuit. Police also had information he may have been armed, according to Smith.
The manhunt began Tuesday, after police began to form a parameter around a home on Westchester Street. Local authorities had learned Cromer was at the home and obtained a warrant for the property, which is in a densely packed neighborhood.
Smith said Cromer shows up “once in a while” in town so police had moved quickly.
“We knew he was in the house,” Smith said. “We thought we had a good plan.”
Before a SWAT unit could arrive, Cromer fled the home with someone else, got into a white BMW, struck two police cruisers and drove off.
The cruisers were occupied. It’s unclear if there were any reported injuries.
Police began to pursue Cromer, but his driving became so dangerous that authorities backed off. Cromer then abandoned his car at Tuscan Village, Smith said.
Witnesses reported seeing the escapee cross Route 28 into a swampy area near the U.S. Post Office . At one point, an officer saw Cromer in the swamp and officers moved in to set a parameter, but he eluded capture.
“He keeps well aware of what his surroundings are,” Smith said.
Before his apprehension, Cromer was last seen on Millville Street.
Police are prepared to prosecute anyone found to have assisted him, Smith said.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the FBI, said rumors Cromer was wanted by the agency in relation to a bank robbery were false.
Comer’s minimum parole date, in relation to his incarceration at the Calumet House Transitional Housing Unit, is Feb. 19, 2027 and his maximum custody release date is Aug. 18, 2030, New Hampshire Department of Corrections spokesperson Jane Graham said.
Police are seeking his extradition to New Hampshire , according to a separate police release.
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